WHAT IS MIND?

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 55, 3 September 1934, Page 8

WHAT IS MIND?

18 -IT ONE'S OWN ?

OR MERELY BORROWED ?

PROFESSION TRAITS

"Virtue! a fig!" quoth lago, " 'tis in oursolvos that wo are thus or thus," But, pn the other bund, is it not equally truo (asks, tlis "Sydney Morning Herald") that it man's mind is moulded by his environment and his wholo outlook and charaetorinfluenced profoundly by the daily pructieo of a 'particular profession? Thus tho professional man might reply to tho heroditarinn lugo, again in, Shakespearean phrase, 'My natiiro is subdued To what it works iti, Itlie tho dyer's hand. This indeed is. one point of viow expressed by Lord Maemillau, Lord of i Appeal in Ordinary, in his Maud'sloy lecture on <(Tho Professional Mind" i delivered to the Medico-Psychological Association, and published in the British Medical Journal, DOES THE JOB MAKE THE MAN? Lord Macraillan maintains that, whatever tho individual differences among tho members of a'profession, there are always common elements showed by all bolonging to it. "Their habits are con- | trolled, their thoughts canalised, their prejudices formed, by tho profession they practise." It is a pretty point, capable of considerable argument, and interesting to both the psychologist and "tho professional man.. Certainly, individuals will retain their (idiosyncrasies, and personality is too powerful and vital n thing' to bo regulated and do,'terminod entirely by the- typo of vocation practised. But the constant dripping of professional habits will also wear away the individualist stonc,'und it is inevitable that tho prolonged repetition of acts, tho daily association with certain particular probloms, the imitation induced by moving in a certain social group, tho requirements of a professional etiquette, all these will tend to'modify a man's nature. . His mind and character in a hundred ways, of ton unconscious, will bo affected, and his reflexes conditioned, until many of his reactions aro largely automatic. BIBDS OF A TEACHER SEGREGATE. The professions, as Lord Macmillan points out, tend to sharo certain characteristics. "From the earliest times," ho says, '' the practitioners of, a particular art liavo shown a. tendency to draw away from tho rest, of tho community and to constitute themselves a separate class with their own ceremonial rites and shibboleths," Today tho lines of demarcation avo loss rigidly drawn, and hence ,the professional typos are not as distinctive as in a primitive community. But the particular rites and shibboleths still persist, together with a tendency -to preserve them intact as nuich.a'nd as long as possible. Thus, the professional mind in general tends'to bo conservative The medical profession, of course, has been proverbially'hostile to new discoveries and novel methods, as instanced -recently in tho lifo of Sir Bobert Jones and ljis struggle to establish orthopaedics. But the logal profession is also inveteratcly conservative, prone to depend on long-acceptod principles and precedents. As for the practitioners of the other learned profession, the Church/they perhaps resist change more strongly than tho doctors anil lawyers. And each prof ession tends to b% solflsh in, putting "the interests cf the craft bofore those of tho community. On the other hand, there is a natural sonso of brotherhood-within tho craft, a fellowship; arising from1 common interests. Ana, if the professional mind clings to its prerogatives, it also honours ite-traditions, sotting up high standards of conduct, jealous of the in^ togrity of its "lugh calling."

ALAS, NO "BELOVED" LAWYERS!

If wo consider tho professions individually, wo find certain inontal phcno> mena appearing as typical of each ono. Tho lawyor'* has never boon a popular profession, profiting as it does by. peoplo '*" misfortunes and crimes, and tho popular attitude was oxpresscd by Dr. Johnson when ho said, "I can|it exactly toll you, sir, who ho is, and I would bo loth to speak ill of any person, who I do not know deserves it, but I. am afraid ho is an attorney." Lord Mncmillan, howover, points out that "tho great bulk of tho legal work o£ tho country is administrative' and noucontentious, requiring no perverse intelloctual subtloty, but just tho ordinary workaday virtues of industry and honosty." Yet he admits that tho profession engenders the habit of judging by words, formulas, and logic rather than by tho facts alone. Tho legal mind ia prone to bo over-subtle, formal, ovon pedantic, yet sharp and critical. Although the Law Lord does not mention. it, it is probablo, too, that, from the | nature of his experience, tho lawyer tonds to be a little sceptical and cynical in regard Jo human nature. Tho, medical mind is not so strongly intol-1 tactual] because qualifies of -emotion, imagination, and personality generally count for so much in therapoutics. His wiclo oxperienco makes tho doctor humane, aud Lord Macmillan pays the profession a goncrous tribute when ho says, "it is porhaps in the modical man that the professional mind finds its finest sphere. At nny rato, I envy the physician tho epithet which is poculiurly his own, the epithet 'beloved,' I have novor hoard of a beloved barrister or a bolovod solicitor."

FEEEDOM OF SPEECH

AUCKLAND RESOLUTIONS

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, This. Day. " A public meeting over which Professor H. Bolshaw presided last evening passed resolutions expressing the view (1) that the Auckland City Council bylaw restricting rights of free speech and free assembly is unduly discriminating in its action; (2) that the facilities provided for the exercise of these rights should bo equally available to all citizens; (3) that the sentences passed on the men who participated in the Boresford Street protest mooting on July 20 were unnecessarily severe, and tho revival of tho curfew was a humiliating and improper uso of the probation system; and (4) that tho Government should not proceed with the. proposed legislation,embodying in statute form certain war regulations, on tho ground that it violates the spirit and principles jof British constitutional freedom.

The speakers at the mooting were j\lr. T. B. Slipper and Professor "W. A. Sowell, who said that tho fight for freedom of speech threatened once- again to become the central struggle of politic?! a/fid social life.